


Discovery

by S0phos



Series: Linked Julie And The Phantoms Fics [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex gonna be sad now, Family, Going Home, Headcanon, Home, I'm Bad At Tagging, JATP, Julie and the phantoms - Freeform, Love, M/M, Support, sorry y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27214483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S0phos/pseuds/S0phos
Summary: Luke got the opportunity to try and make things right with his parents through Julie but Reggie and Alex haven't had that chance. Although on bad grounds, Alex couldn't shake the thought of seeing his family again and curiosity got the better of him.
Relationships: Alex & Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: Linked Julie And The Phantoms Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989556
Comments: 8
Kudos: 175





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> Much of this is headcanon seeing as we know so little about Alex but I still hope you enjoy! This is very much a scene setting chapter, the few future chapters I have planned are even more emotional than this (sorry) and are made to break my good friends Hal, Em, Logan and Lyre. The one very major headcanon in this is that Luke had a little sister called Isobel. Everything from season 1 stands as it was and this is set around a few weeks after the end of S1, after things have died down a bit (Because in my head they have and WE DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT FINAL SCENE AT ALL NO NOPE)

The unlimited movement of being a ghost had become second nature to all of the boys at this point, especially to Alex seeing as he was constantly jumping about to find Willie. This was one of the few times Alex had disappeared alone without the intention of going to find his not so secret crush. He knew that Luke’s home was intact and he knew that Reggie’s was not; he had no idea about the state of his own.

The world reappeared in front of him after a quick flash of white that came with the so called “teleportation” capabilities. In the 25 years that Alex had been gone nothing had changed. He lived in a small area in south LA, far out from much of the bustle of the City Of Angels. Well… he used to live. The neighbourhood was small but lively and was covered in greenery that just seemed to burst from everywhere including the cracks in the cobbled walls that haphazardly lined the streets. His house was very similar. It was a cosy two storey house that comfortably fit Alex, his mom and dad, and his little sister Isobel. It was probably too big for them now… Izzy probably wasn’t even in the house anymore… She would be what.. 35.. 36.. At this point? Alex was already fighting to hold back tears. Just looking at the home brought back a wave of memories - some good. Many bad. But he couldn’t hold it off any longer. He needed to know that they were ok. He let his eyes close and imagined himself in the front hall of his old home.

He opened his eyes and the imagined place in his mind became a reality - and it hadn’t changed a bit. A dark gray lined the walls in the small, rectangular hallway and the stairwell up to the rest of the house looked rickety as ever as he glanced around. The dark brown wooden panels on the floor hadn’t changed either. They looked old and worn and many marks were still left from a young Alex running around the house gleefully before things took the turn that they did. He had three options: upstairs to two of the bedrooms, his own bedroom to the left or the kitchen and living room that claimed the space at the back of the house. The sound of gentle music drifting from the kitchen led him that way. 

Much like the hallway, the kitchen and living space hadn’t changed either. They were bland and boring but functional and had no real need to look any fancier. What did shock Alex was the myriad of photos and awards that covered the room. Slowly, he approached one wall which was particularly busy and glanced over the photos. He saw the wedding of his parents, he saw his grandparents, he saw his little sister as a baby, a toddler, a child, a young woman, a graduate, a business owner… everything that Alex had missed was up on these walls. There used to be photos of him up here and now it was like he had been wiped off of the face of the earth. He wanted to be surprised but deep down he knew that this was how his mom and dad felt about him. He wasn’t worth celebrating. His sister was. By the looks of things, she was a doctor now. And Alex was dead. Because of a stupid hot dog. As the tears that he had once fought back began to stream down his face, he heard the quick but gentle movement of somebody coming down the stairs. He quickly wiped away the tears and went to find somewhere to hide before remembering that whoever this was wouldn’t be able to see him; based on his family, even if they could see him they probably wouldn’t care.

It was his mother. Now she most certainly had changed. Her hair that once sported a similar colour to Alex’s was now fading into a light gray at the roots and her gray eyes were sunken but still held the glint that was one of the few things about her that made Alex smile. She looked happier. She was no longer confined to a smart appearance that she used to be insistent on but was instead wearing a dark green sweater with a pair of baggy navy jeans and to Alex’s complete surprise, sneakers. He didn’t know what to make of this sight. Seeing his mom happy made him happy but why was she so happy? She never used to smile and it was normally her voice that Alex would hear angrily shouting at him for something else he did wrong. Was she happier with him gone? Was that the turning point? There were no photos of him anymore… maybe they wanted to forget him.. Forget what a disappointment he was. 

The thought of this made Alex sick to his stomach. He wanted to leave. He wanted to run away somewhere… anywhere away from here. And away from the band. He hated when he felt like this and didn’t want anyone else to see him like this and since the band were the only people that could see him anymore, that would mean leaving them too. Alex felt his breathing quicken and his heart rate increase so shuffled over toward the couch and leant on it for support. He had to go. But when the door opened and he watched his younger - well, now older - sister walk in, he couldn’t find it in him to leave. This was the only person other than Sunset Curve that ever truly cared about him and now here she was again in the flesh.


	2. The Disappearing Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex's sister has just arrived to the house. She's so grown up... There is the horrible feeling in Alex's mind that she might've chosen to forget him to. It wouldn't be a surprise seeing as she's a member of this family too...

“Hi sweetie!” Alex heard his mother call out. He could see her out of the corner of his eye as she emptied the drying rack beside the sink but his attention was focused on her sister. Last time he saw her, she was 11. She was just starting middle school and even then she looked grown up. Now she was a well put together, intelligent young woman and a man of similar age was standing beside her holding her hand.   
“Oh hello Felix! How are you?”   
“I’m very well thank you Alison, glad to see you’ve made some time for yourself…” the young gentleman said as he passed through the threshold into the home and toward the kitchen with Isobel. He was dressed in a black suit and carried a small briefcase which he placed down onto the granite worktop in the kitchen before making himself at home on the weathered couch.  
“Uh mom, we won’t be staying long, I just popped over to grab something from my old stuff and drop off the tire pump,” Isobel explained, “Thanks, by the way.”  
“You’re very welcome my dear. All of your things are still in your room. Help yourself.”  
Happy, kind, caring: all things that Alex didn’t normally see from his mom. And yet here she was, actually looking after her child. It just seemed to reinforce the ideas that were brewing in Alex’s mind. He couldn’t look at her anymore. Quickly he hurried along the corridor and up the stairs, now following his sister towards her room. 

This was one of the other rooms that had changed. The light pink that the room once was was now a bright white which was only brightened by the light flooding into the room from the window in the far left corner. Immediately, Isobel moved over to the wooden cupboard that was built into one of the walls. It was the small storage space for the entirety of her childhood. There were old toys, old clothes and an abundance of certificates which Isobel began to dig through. Memories of swimming and academics and sports competitions all came flooding back and Isobel smiled fondly whilst Alex watched over her shoulder, choking back tears.

Suddenly there was a crash. A number of boxes that had been precariously balanced within the cupboard came tumbling down around Isobel. She was unscathed; her stuff was not. She glanced around at the damage. Most of it was salvageable or needed to be thrown out anyway but one thing caught her attention. A small yellow picture frame. Slowly she moved towards it and picked it up. It was her and her brother. One of the only pictures that Isobel was allowed to keep when the rest were thrown out a few years after his death. The glass in the frame was now cracked due to the avalanche of stuff but the photo was still visible. It was a ten year old Isobel dressed in a rainbow of colours sat on Alex’s lap on the stool of the high school drum set where Alex learnt to play. They both were beaming widely and each of them was holding one drumstick high in the air. Alex remembered this moment. It was after the first performance of Sunset Curve. Izzy was so proud of him that day. That was the last happy day that Alex could remember from his time at home.  
“Oh Izzy…” he whispered under his breath as he tried to wipe away the floods that just continued to cascade down his face. Isobel spun around suddenly. She was sure she heard something.

It was at this point that Felix came hurrying into the room with concern plastered over his face.  
“I heard a crash. Are you ok?”  
“Yeah I’m fine… Mom doesn’t take great care of my stuff so this happens a lot…” Isobel explained as she quickly shoved the small frame into her jacket pocket.   
“Damn… Is your mom always like this? I mean, the conversation I’m having with her is… certainly heated. Kind of glad you caused some chaos so I could escape.”  
“Yeah… yeah she is. Oh! Thanks for doing this by the way. You know that if she knew about your sister I’d be done for…”  
“No worries, I can’t imagine how Liz would feel if our mom wasn’t accepting. I got you!” Felix replied as he threw an arm around Isobel. Normally it took Alex some time to catch onto some things but this all clicked right away. Isobel wasn’t straight. And their parents were still the homophobes they were 25 years ago. Alex felt his palms ball up into fists. A flood of emotions rushed over him. He wanted to stay and protect Izzy - but what could he do? 

It was at that moment, Alex heard the front door open again. This time a masculine voice.  
“I saw the tire pump out front, is Isobel here?” It was the voice of his father. Alex watched Izzy’s face contort into one of disgruntlement and frustration. He felt very similar.  
“We’ll get out of here ASAP, I got what I need.” Isobel sighed as she stood and moved out of the room with Felix by her side. Alex couldn’t see his father. He just couldn’t. And so he left.


	3. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex poofs back into the garage and is lost beyond words. He doesn't know what to do. Luckily, he has best friends who do.

The vibrant garage reappeared around Alex. It wasn’t his plan to come back here but his mind urged him to go someplace safe and this was the only place he could think of. He stood in stunned silence for a moment. In the past 20 minutes he had just watched his life disappear into nothing. Oblivion. 

His parents didn’t love him anymore. They never did.

Alex stumbled over to the couch and collapsed. Between shaky breaths he let out sobs of anguish and hurt. Not even the shocks from Caleb’s curse hurt as much as this did. At this point he kind of wished that the shocks had gotten rid of him for good; he wouldn’t have had to experience this if they had. He was so glad that Luke had found some kind of peace with his family and was sure that Reggie was going to work stuff out too… but Alex was destined to be forgotten by the world, no matter how much fame Julie and the Phantoms bought him.

Whilst Alex let the hurt consume him, Reggie was spending some quality time inside with the one and only Ray Molina. He was sitting at the dining room table slowly scrolling through a number of newly taken photos of his wonderful kids. It was rare that Carlos would let his dad take photos of him but not as rare as the both of them in the same pictures. They had been taken a few days after the concert at the Orpheum and Ray could see through the large smile in the photo that Julie had still been on cloud 9 at this point. Whilst Julie’s excitement had now subsided, Reggie was still soaring. He watched fondly as Ray analysed the photos. The reason Julie was smiling so much in this photo was because he, Luke and Alex had all decided to come along and watch Ray work his magic. Their chaos behind the camera was enough to make Julie burst out into fits of laughter that had made Ray’s job particularly difficult. Reggie now saw this due to many of the pictures being blurry as Julie struggled to stay upright because she was laughing too much. Ray just quietly chuckled to himself.  
“I’m.. I’m glad you’re not mad at us Ray!” Reggie laughed, “And hey! You got some awesome pictures out of this so I count this as a success.”  
Reggie had experienced so much over the past couple weeks and this was one of the few moments that he had time to reminisce. A lot of the things that they had done recently could be counted as successes. Being visible when playing, playing the Orpheum, getting rid of Caleb’s curse.

Reggie was snapped out of the dream like memories as Ray closed his laptop.  
“Oh we done for today Ray?” Reggie asked before, much like a puppy, getting distracted, “Oh hey that rhymed!”  
At this point Ray had already risen from his seat and placed his laptop on the side before grabbing his car keys from the bowl on the kitchen counter and heading to the back door.  
“Same time tomorrow? Ray? Ok cool no worries!” Now left alone in the house, Reggie stood awkwardly just glancing around. No one was home. Time for some practice on the bass.

Much like the teleportation, walking through walls had also become a normality for the boys yet Reggie could never shake the strange feeling that came with it. It only lasted for a brief moment but it was still there. He was about to complain about it to himself as he passed through the white wooden doors of the garage but held his tongue as he heard the now feeble but still very sorrowful wails of his best friend. He was lying on the couch, facing towards the back, curled up as tightly as he could be on the narrow cushions and he was shaking violently. Reggie knew when Alex was hurt. The time in the darkness when they were truly dead was one thing. They were all hurting then. But this was something else entirely. Quickly, Reggie stepped back through the wall as not to be heard before quickly jumping away to a neighbourhood toward the other side of LA.

It was Luke’s old neighbourhood. He always told the boys when he was going to see his parents nowadays and although it was still a sad sight to see his parents and have them not see him, it was bittersweet. When Reggie appeared, he was greeted by the sight of Luke’s mom and dad sitting happily on a set of worn garden chairs on their small patio. Luke was nearby, just smiling sadly as he listened in on their conversation. Reggie just watched for a moment. From time to time, Luke would add to the current topic with his own opinions even though he knew that they would go unheard. Reggie didn’t want to interrupt but knowing that Alex was at home in so much pain he quickly hurried over and sat down beside Luke.  
“Hey man, what are you doing here?” Luke asked. He was clearly intrigued and listening but much of his focus remained on his parents.  
“We’ve got a problem.”  
This spiked Luke’s attention as he now turned to face Reggie with concern plastering his face.  
“What kind of problem?”  
“It’s Alex. He left the house around an hour ago. I spent some time with Ray and when I went back to the garage he was back. And he was upset dude… Like… _actually_ upset.”   
Luke quickly stood followed by Reggie.  
“Do you know where he went? Do you think Willie’s messed up? Because if he has I swear I will…”  
“No no no I don’t think so. Luke… the last time we saw him like this was when… when his parents made up their minds about him.”  
The boys shared a look. It was one of sadness and memories and a tinge of guilt. After a few seconds, Luke just disappeared and then so did Reggie.


	4. Safe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are with Alex now. And they're not letting him get hurt any time soon.

The boys reappeared just outside of the garage where Reggie had left just a few minutes before. Without any real hesitation, Reggie summoned the focus to grab the door handle and open the door. The boys thought it would be more respectful to make their presence known with the squeak of the old hinges. This alerted Alex. He bolted upright and began furiously wiping the tears from his eyes which were raw at this point. His face had turned a bright red and he was sweating profusely. Luke and Reggie both knew that the rare times he cried like this meant that things were serious. Quickly the two of them rushed over to the sofa area. Luke crashed onto the couch beside him and Reggie slouched down into the armchair and reached out, placing a hand on Alex's knee.  
“Guys thank you but I’m fine…” Alex managed to choke out as he continued to hide the tears that would not stop falling.  
“Alex,” Reggie murmured, “We’ve been friends for as long as I can remember. We’re not going to let you brush this under the rug and pretend nothing happened. What’s going on?”  
“I went to see my family.”  
Luke and Reggie shared a similar look to the one they gave each other at Luke’s parents’ house. They knew full well that Alex’s mom and dad had never been accepting and, much like Luke’s parents, thought that the band was a waste of time.   
“Dude… I am… I am so sorry…” Luke began as he placed an arm around Alex’s shoulder. Alex wanted to shrug it off and say he didn’t need the affection but it was the only thing he needed right now.  
“They forgot about me. There’s not a trace of me left in that stupid house. All the photos of me are gone. They didn’t want me in their life. And once I was gone… they were… they were happier…”. Alex let out another bout of tears, just letting them flow instead of trying to hold them back. Luke and Reggie both felt their eyes begin to fill as they too began crying as they watched their friend crumble in front of them. At this point, Reggie got up and sat down in front of Alex, placing his chin on one knee and a loving hand on the other.  
“Alex you have to know they haven’t forgotten about you. Outwardly they’ve always wanted to appear as put together and as a perfectly normal family but you know full well that behind closed doors they’re different people…”  
“I went in behind closed doors Reg! It’s not like anyone could see me and the only people home were mom, dad, Isobel and some dude that was with her…”  
“Isobel has a boyfriend?” Luke asked, slightly taken aback at the idea of the 11 year old he remembered now being in a relationship.  
“No,” Alex explained between shaky breaths, “Mom and dad thinks she has a boyfriend. It was her girlfriend’s brother by the sounds of things. She remembered how messed up mom and dad were when they… when they found out about… about me and so… and so.” something stopped Alex from finishing what he was saying. He didn’t know if it was the anger of knowing that even his sister was having to hide from his parents or whether it was the overwhelming sadness of remembering the argument that seemed to never end after he came out. Finally, Luke wrapped both arms around Alex and enveloped him in a warm embrace. Reggie quickly joined them on the couch and surrounded Alex from the other side.

Alex remembered why he didn’t run away from here when he had the chance. Running away from his real family was one thing but running away from his found family was another. He felt warmth in a variety of different ways. He felt the warmth of the tears of all three of the boys beginning to seep into different pieces of clothing. He felt the warmth of Luke's embrace to the left of him and the warmth of Reggies to the right. He had stopped shaking at this point. Still crying, but no longer shaking. There was no need to shake when he was safe in the arms of his best friends.

“We’re not gonna let anyone else hurt you Alex. Promise.” Reggie whispered as he buried his own face into Alex’s denim jacket. Luke chuckled and reached over to pat Reggie on the back.  
“He’s got a point you know. We’ve only got each other now. Which means that you’re not allowed to push us away when you’re hurting, kay?”  
“As long as you follow your own rules, I think we have a deal.” Alex sniffled as a gentle smile began to creep over his face. He was still crying and the three of them were still contorted into a messy hug but Alex was beginning to feel a lot better.

This resonated with all of the boys. Luke knew that over the past couple of weeks when they needed each other most, Luke had pushed them both away to go and see his parents. In this moment, Luke swore to himself to never push them away again. Reggie always appeared as an open guy. But there were so many secrets that he held close to his chest that he just let build and build and build. One day he’d have to let them out and his friends were gonna be really mad. But today couldn’t be that day.

It was at this point that Julie and Flynn pushed open the doors of the garage. Julie had never seen the boys in such an emotional mess and was about to comment on it before Luke signalled for them both to leave.  
“Hm. The boys aren’t in here… Let’s just head upstairs for a bit, I’m sure they’ll be around in half an hour or so…” Julie said before giving Luke a knowing smile and turning around with Flynn.  
“Oh um… Ok? Where do ghosts go anyway? Like… you’re the only one that can see them. Do they go hang out at the beach? Can they feel water? Do they need to eat? Like how does that work?” Flynn began as the two of them made their way back towards the house.  
“I… y’know what I guess this is what we’re talking about for the next half an hour isn’t it…?  
“Yes. Yes it is.” Flynn laughed, grabbing Julie’s hand and pulling her towards her bedroom.

Alex heard the two of them but couldn’t bear to look at them when he looked like this.   
“You… You didn’t have to send them out… I… I would’ve been fine.”  
“Hey! I’m enjoying this hug. Make it last Alex… Make it last.” Reggie exclaimed. He hugged the both of them tighter and they both reciprocated the gesture. This was Alex’s home now. It was the place where he truly felt safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the fic! This is easily the longest fic I've done and it was a pleasure to write. Get ready for lost more JATP stuff in the future!


End file.
